USA

Forty five of Asia’s foremost sustainable development and climate change practitioners are currently attending the Asia chapter of a global capacity drive on gender and climate change convened by the Global Gender and Climate Alliance (GGCA) in Bangkok, Thailand. …

As a result of a new partnership between the John Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), students will embark on a concrete study that will evaluate the current governance options for achieving commonly accepted marine conservation goals and a sustainable future for our oceans. …

The IUCN Regional Office for Oceania and the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) Regional Office for the Pacific (ROP) are developing a synergistic mechanism for the delivery of Pacific services on addressing regional invasive species issues.
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The University of the South Pacific and Landcare Research New Zealand Limited have been co-operating for some years on a project-by-project basis. Now, both institutions have decided to intensify their co-operation by signing a Memorandum of Agreement to support science collaboration and to develop high level science-based strategic partnership. …

For the first time ever, the WWC will convene in Latin America from 6-13 November, in the city of Merida, Yucatan, in the heart of the Mayan world. Many of the world’s leading conservation experts, politicians, academics, corporations, artists, native peoples, students and many others will gather in Merida, Mexico to debate and act upon the most urgent environmental issues of our time. …

A new report was presented to a United Nations General Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole in New York last week which provides governments with options for establishing an assessment process for better understanding ocean processes through an integrated framework. The Working Group developed recommendations for this year’s General Assembly that provide a way forward for establishing a regular global marine assessment process, with further agreement on certain modalities to be worked out in 2010. …

Marine experts, assembled by the Save Our Seas Foundation in July, called for action to sustain the Indian Ocean whaling ban and protect dolphins from growing slaughter. Despite the ban on whaling in a large area of the Indian Ocean, populations of both whales and dolphins appear to be on the decline, mainly because of accidental entrapment in fishing gear and in some cases, intentional hunting. …